Final report for YENC23-202
Project Information
Lodi Family Center is located on the Medina, Wayne, Lorain, and Ashland County borders. Our targeted population has 53% poverty; 74% of families have experienced domestic violence; our schools are recovering from receivership; and 68% of families are single parents. Since the pandemic started, our pantry served 17,763 households. We have 80 volunteers actively engaged in promoting the use of fresh produce from local farms in every meal. Our goal is to improve the health and wellness of our community by helping families overcome the barriers that keep them from incorporating fresh produce in their children's daily diets.
1. Introduce 100 youth to climate resilient, organic regenerative agriculture through hands-on work sessions that also explore cover crops, nutrient management and soil health.
2. Introduce 40 youth to natural pollinators and beneficial insects while exploring natural role wetlands play in our area as well as how to improve water quality.
3. Increase by 200 the number of youth who participate in indoor and outdoor gardening opportunities while exploring the differences between commercial farming and family-operated farms as well as hydroponics, aeroponics, aquaponics, and soil-based indoor gardening options.
4. Increase by 40 the number of youth understanding of how wildlife preservation, renewable energy, and responsible gardening positively affects our community's and their families quality of life through a minimum of one field trip and 3 hands-on-projects with politicians, farmers, and local chefs.
5. Presentations of results of project completed through ongoing social media promotions as well as a minimum of 6 community events.
Educational & Outreach Activities
Participation Summary:
Two Open Houses were hosted between May and December 2023. A total of 41 tours were offered that included education regarding hydroponics and soil-based gardening. In June 2023, we hosted "Dino Roar" Open House, who brought with them life-size baby dinosaurs (the T-Rex was 12 feet tall!). This was designed to introduce our summer STEAM Program and allowed families to enroll their children. This activity kicked off our Jurassic Week activities and spotlighted archeological dig where children excavated a baby dinosaur egg in the middle of our education garden. We also studied edible plants that we eat today that were present during prehistoric times. These plants were based on the research released by the University of Kansas in February 2023, which extended the record of nearly 40,000 species of flowering plants including modern-day staple crops like potatoes, coffee, tomatoes and mint, according to a news release by the University of Kansas. During the summer, we explored how hunter-gathering processes and demand for food drove the need to begin to manage crops (the start of agriculture about 10,000 years ago). A total of 146 youth participated in the activities. 39 youth enrolled in our Agriculture, Gardening, & Hydroponics Club. 23 of these youth were invited to continue their programs after school in the fall.
To nurture excitement in gardening and agriculture, we offered weekly "Chopped Challenges": Kids provided a Fresh Produce Bar along with a "Mystery Box" item (ie assorted cubed cheeses, popcorn, etc.) and challenged to create a fun, healthy, appealing to the eye snack. Judges criteria for scoring included "rainbow colors" of fruits/veggies used, how well child could explain nutrition component, if met food requirements (measurements of meal components), and if the child ate the snack. At the end of Summer 2024, we hosted a "Chopped Mystery Box Cooking Competition" that required youth to harvest and use foods from both the hydroponics and outside community gardens. Three local farmers donated additional produce to ensure that young chefs in training would have enough fresh produce to feed 40 youth and five judges. The Ohio Department of Education Summer Food Service Program staff came to judge the youth as they prepared the meals served that day as well as judge a meal prepared especially for them.
The Outdoor Kids Community Garden provided fresh veggies for most of the snacks and lunches served during the summer. Kids were challenged to try a variety of fruits and veggies. Farmer Kish helped with the program. Fresh produce the kids grew and ate together are:
Sweet corn, Colored glass corn
Sugar cane
Green beans, Purple beans, Yard long beans, Edamame
Zucchini, Eggplant, Summer squash
Watermelon, Pumpkin
Tomatoes -many varieties
Basil -many varieties, Cilantro, Parsley
Peppers, Hot Peppers, Poblanos, Onions, Cucumber
Radish, Red beets, Carrots, Potatoes,
Lettuce
Loofah gourds
Sunflowers
Tea: 2 different mint, Chamomile,
Edible Flowers: Borage, Nasturtium
Youth participants were encouraged to expand their pallets by trying new foods that they themselves grew, cared for, and harvested. More than 800 pounds of produce such as herbs, veggies, teas, and fruits were harvested and donated to the pantry through the community garden. Our kids participated in the summer's USDA Cucumber Crunch as well as the Apple Crunch activities. The kids also participated in a National Smoothie Challenge, using produce they grew to 'pedal' a smoothie on their smoothie bike.
Lodi Family Center was the recipient of the 2023 USDA Gourd Level Winner (top level) for Farm to Table efforts. 2024 results are pending.
Our kids were also the 2023 Lettuce Turnip the Beet Gold winners in 2023 with 2024 results of this farm to table challenge pending announcement.
The Community Garden morphed into a place that was used to help youth develop life skills. On gardening program promoted youth literacy, acting as home to the 2024 Summer Reading Club taught by a local teacher. Another, created a safe place for creative expression as youth participated in Kids Paint & Sips, created murals, and sculpted. The addition of a covered swing also created a comfy outdoor garden space for the Kids Crochet Club.
Local chefs came to visit and taught kids how to cook a variety of dishes using stoves, open fires, and grills. Wild Northeast Ohio came and taught the kids all about Ohio native plants, edible native plants, and pollinators.
- Host webinar or in-person workshop
- Other
Learning Outcomes
How nature works in a garden and the importance of beneficial insects and pollinators
Production of food from seeds and proper care of plants to improve harvest
Increased self-confidence and believe in their own abilities
Improved communication and following directions
During year 1, we introduced our first round of hydroponics growing projects. The youth learned how plants draw nutrients from water or the soil, growth stages and harvesting produce. They also explored how nature works in the garden and what they can do to help nurture and stimulate plant growth. Beneficial insects and pollinators versus pests were studied.
Pollinators, environmental challenges, and exploring agriculture-based careers were the focus of the second year of the grant. The outdoor community garden was continued following the same format as the previous year. However, this year we focused on hand tilling and gardening versus the use of motorized garden equipment. Additional time was also spent on offering expanded hydroponics gardening lessons. The youth created a harvesting tracking process that resulted in crop rotation that benefited the Community Meals program.
Youth in this program were given the opportunity to plant seeds in both a hydroponic and outdoor soil-based environment. They journaled their discoveries. Many were hesitant to both grow vegetables that were foreign to them as well as try to eat them at first. In the end, all 39 youth participating for three months or more afterschool reported that they tried nearly all 29 varieties of produce, herb, and teas that they planted together.
The two most prevalent areas of changes in attitudes included youth improving their communication as well as ability to follow directions. 93% also reported feeling more confident in their ability to complete the tasks necessary for nurturing a garden. We also saw improvement in their school grades as well as a reduction in the number of times they made bad choices leading to discipline during the afterschool program at the center.
What is Soil Health? (https://www.sare.org/resources/what-is-soil-health/) - we found this, as well as the pest control and cover crop materials, very helpful as youth were learning about gardening.
We supplemented the SARE packets with research-based projects from 4-H. This provided youth a structured program from seed to harvest which was also displayed in the 4-H Community Buildings during our local fair. Our favorite projects were:
- Teaming With Insects: Entomology Curriculum Level 1
- Pollinators Patch Program - KidsGardening.org and Cabot Creamery Co-operative
- Soilless Growing Systems: A Hydroponics Curriculum - Student Guide
- Here, There, Ag Careers Everywhere
- Gardening Level A: See Them Sprout // Gardening Level B: Let's Get Growing
The Afterschool Agriculture: Acres of Adventure Level 1 & 2 activity books were easy to implement. The activities do not need to be completed in order, so we were able to match them up with what we needed to do seasonally.
Grow plants in microgravity with an arduino clinostat (https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science-fair-projects/project-ideas/PlantBio_p054/plant-biology/plants-grow-microgravity-arduino-clinostat) was a lot of fun for the kids.
Unlock Ag Innovations - Escape Room Activity Kit was a great way to end the summer.
The SARE programs are great resources that included The Cover Crop Innovator Series of videos. These were great resources that we used to engage youth in gardening and learning more about farmers and the equipment they used. These short videos provide great variety in a way that compliments what we were teaching. Of course, you need to have access to youtube and a television or projector to utilize them.
The Afterschool Agriculture: Acres of Adventure really helped provide structure for our volunteers. The activities were short and educational. Kids really enjoyed most of them.
The space plant growing experiment was exciting for the Kids. Science Buddies did a great job preparing me for the set-up. But it did take some monitoring. Finding the seeds was the hardest part. We ended up locating them on Amazon. Make sure you use watercress. Other seeds did not grow as fast.
Project Outcomes
National 4-H has hydroponics and gardening project books that we are now utilizing in the program. Frank Brothers Landscape Supply has also provided garden soil and mulch allowing us to expand our community gardens. This also allowed us to plant additional varieties of plants in the gardens.
This grant has really helped us develop a worthwhile sustainable gardening program. We have now found a curriculum through our National 4H partner that will help us help kids explore careers in agriculture! At first we were going to utilize a smaller classroom for the program. But Crop King recommended that we change rooms for a variety of reasons, the most important of which is that the originally selected room already had high humidity. When we finally identified and agreed with the landlord on a different room, we found that we are able to increase the number of hydroponic systems from what we originally requested. While working with our insurance company, we learned that they needed everything bolted to the floor, ceiling and walls. Unfortunately, we need to walk completed around the crops to care for them. Crop King worked with us to identify new units that will be on castors. This allows us to unbolt the units from the walls and slide them forward to make room for us to pass between the wall and the plant rack to care for the plants. Then we simply move it back and put the bolts back in place. These units just came available in January. We are awaiting approval for a reallocation that was submitted recently now that pricing is available. To help us still fulfill the grant requirements through this funding, Crop King generously donated NFT Desktops and another donor provided a rolling rack with grow lights.
The youth have really benefited from this project. We have seen a reduction in challenging behaviors as well as improvement in listening and following directions. More importantly, we have seen an increase in youth partaking in the fresh produce bar during snack times. Some parents have even expressed their pleasure in how their children are not fighting them as much to eat fresh vegetables at home. One parent was absolutely shocked when her child ate fresh broccoli!